About this blog

My name is Bill Hirt and I'm a candidate to be a Representative from the 48th district in the Washington State legislature. My candidacy stems from concern the legislature is not properly overseeing the WSDOT and Sound Transit East Link light rail program. I believe East Link will be a disaster for the entire eastside. ST will spend 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will increase, not decrease cross-lake congestion, violates federal environmental laws, devastates a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, creates havoc in Bellevue's central business district, and does absolutely nothing to alleviate congestion on 1-90 and 405. The only winners with East Link are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor unions.

This blog is an attempt to get more public awareness of these concerns. Many of the articles are from 3 years of failed efforts to persuade the Bellevue City Council, King County Council, east side legislators, media, and other organizations to stop this debacle. I have no illusions about being elected. My hope is voters from throughout the east side will read of my candidacy and visit this Web site. If they don't find them persuasive I know at least I tried.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

More Sound Transit Board Incompetence

The April 29th
Times article and all the fanfare about Sound Transit’s decision to begin
drilling the tunnel connecting the UW and Northgate raises some
questions. The most obvious is why is ST referring to the $18.7 billion (2007$) Prop 1 proposal voters approved in 2008 as "Sound Transit's $11 billion light rail network". Does it reflect an ST recognition of the "impracticality" of some of the extensions? If so, it makes the second question even more relevant. Why the
rush to start a tunnel in 2014, that will take two years to complete, for a
light rail system that won’t begin operation until 2021?

The ST 2014 budget
included the following projected funding for the Northgate extension:

$138.6 million
to advance final design of the light rail extension north to Northgate, start
tunnel-boring activities, and continue work at station locations.

It’s “unlikely”
that the portion of the $138.6 billion budget dedicated to “start tunnel-boring
activities” would be sufficient to cover the “tunnel boring” costs for the 6-7
months in 2014. It's clear Dow
Constantine and the rest of the board including the Mayor of Seattle and 4 King County Council members have decided to spend hundreds of millions over the next two years to “expedite” the Northgate tunnel. The fact they would chose to do so at a time when those riding Metro buses are facing devastating cuts in service because of a $75 million shortfall gives a whole new meaning to the term "incompetent".

Their decision “may”
reflect concern the “public” will sooner rather than later “recognize” the
total absurdity of the Northgate extension.ST made a major blunder when they agreed with the UW to
extend light rail to Northgate rather than terminate it at a T/C near the
University station.(Second only
to their decision to install light rail on the I-90 center roadway rather than
two-way BRT).

Doing so eliminated
the ability to use a University Station T/C as an interface between 520 bus
riders and light rail.Eastside
commuters could combine express BRT rides from a P&R near where they live
to fast reliable light rail connections into Seattle.Seattleites could have used light rail and BRT to work
locations on east side.The loss of thousands of daily riders in both directions is the primary reason Central Link will never approach the 100,000 daily riders initially promised by 2010.

Instead, both East
Link and Central Link trains will be routed to Northgate (and beyond to
Lynnwood?). ST will have to
choose between 2 or 4-car trains for East Link.Neither will have the needed capacity for cross-lake
commuters, but both will have operating costs that dwarf fare box revenue for the Northgate and beyond portion of the route. The result will be gridlock on I-90 and
a financial “black hole” from Northgate. All to replace a far less expensive Metro bus route 41 which currently leaves Northgate T/C every 4-5 minutes during peak commute and takes 18 minutes to reach Seattle Tunnel University St station.

Also "questionable" is
the comment in the article concerning UW worries that tunnel vibrations from
light rail would disrupt experiments on the campus.The idea the use of “rubber-tired vehicles” during construction will eliminate any subsequent problem is belied by
a“Master Implementation Agreement with Sound Transit” (MIA)
dealing with UW requirements for Central Link.

The concerns with the MIA
agreement are detailed in the 4/10/13 post “ST
High Risk/No Reward Northgate Extension”.They include the fact the tunnel vibration risks have resulted inST
and UW agreeing to a lump sum payment of $20,000,000 by ST to the University.In order to minimize vibration Sound Transit will also have a continuing
obligation to employ, over the term of this Agreement, the most current and
effective design and material.

Even with these probably
expensive design features the completed tunnel light rail must still demonstrate
compliance during “pre-Revenue Service Testing." ST won’t be
allowed to commence Revenue Service on University Properties if
(Vibration and MF) Thresholds are exceeded. (Presumably 4-car trains would make vibration levels even more problematic.)

The MIA assures any disputes
regarding these issues will likely be resolved in favor of the University since the Board of Regents has
ultimate approval authority on design, mitigation and monitoring plans required
of ST.

If the UW official believes using
rubber-wheeled vehicles during construction eliminates the vibration risk with
light rail trains, have them set aside the requirements in the MIA.If not, ST could delay any Northgate
drilling until they have measurements from the existing Central Link tunnel or
the UW extension when completed in 2016 confirming acceptable vibration levels.
There would still be plenty of time
to complete the tunnel to meet the 2021 light rail operating date.

ST’s current approach will result
in a light rail system they either won’t be able to operate because of excessive
vibration levels or a light rail system with operating costs that drain the
areas transportation funds.They should recognize neither option is acceptable and insist on
terminating Central Link at a University T/C. The other "option" is to stop East Link, allow Northgate service to better match local demand and minimize operating cost problems. Since that's not likely to happen their decision to “expedite” the tunnel is more justification for their membership in the Light Rail Hall of Shame.

About Me

My last elective position was class president for 25 “class of ’57” seniors in Armstrong, Iowa. I received an MS in engineering at ISU, worked at Boeing for 36 years before retiring in 1998. My wife and I moved into our current home in Bellevue in 1967 where we raised two daughters. Three years of unsuccessful attempts to persuade BCC to block EL are available on “extended session” meeting minutes. Copies of many were sent to all the media outlets, legislators, and others to no avail. I’m hoping this Web site will convince east side residents to query their own legislators.